


I'll Come Running

by elrhiarhodan



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Consequences of Time Travel, Episode Tag, Friendship, Gen, Grief, Healing, Mention of canon death of canon character, Missing Scene, Reference to WestAllen, The Universe Wants Us To Be Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 21:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8506735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrhiarhodan/pseuds/elrhiarhodan
Summary: Barry's feeling disconnected to everything in this new universe, from his family and his friends.  Especially to Cisco.  And Cisco is feeling equally lost and wants to find a way back to his friend.
An episode tag, set just before S2.05, Monster, explaining how Barry ended up living at Cisco's place.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Carol King classic, _You've Got a Friend_

Barry doesn't know whether he should keep his distance from Cisco, or pretend things are normal, or try to find some happy medium between the two states. 

The guilt eats at him and he wants to overcompensate, but he also doesn't want to be rebuffed or shut down or frozen out.

And of course, there's a large part of him that will always ache to go back and fix this mistake. In his weaker moments, Barry tells himself that it's not _that_ far back, that it's just one thing. That saving Dante won't have so many consequences. Not like saving his mother.

Then Barry remembers Jay Garrick's – the _real_ Jay Garrick's – words. And the example of the broken coffee cup – all the little pieces missing from around the big cracks. Dante's death, the erasure of Sara Diggle, the appearance of Julian Albert at the CCPD – and god knows what else – are those tiny little pieces. Fissures in the timeline that can't be patched over.

If he rescues Dante, who else will die or be wiped away? Joe? Iris? Wally? _Cisco?_ Or maybe some person he doesn't yet know. 

So Barry tries to play it cool. He treats Cisco like he's still his best friend, but never asks for anything from him if he can avoid it. Barry doesn't initiate conversation with him, but participates fully if Cisco brings him into the discussion. He enjoys his time with Iris, but in the back of his mind, he can't help but believe that he's purchased this joy with Cisco's pain.

It's kind of late – a little after eleven on a Friday night. Cisco's left for the night and so has Caitlin. Iris is working on a deadline for a cover feature in the Sunday edition. Wally's gone home and H.R., thankfully, is bunked down in the room that Harry had occupied and Jesse had transformed. Barry's both charmed and repulsed by this edition of Harrison Wells and wonders if bringing him here isn't a big mistake.

Barry thinks about heading home, too. But for some reason, he can't bring himself to go. Not that he'd taken Joe's "I'd thought you'd never leave" seriously. If he'd never brought up getting his own place, Joe would have been happy to have him there forever. But somehow, Joe's words reinforce the feeling that it's not his home anymore.

That it never exactly was his home. That the people here aren't really his friends and that he is in the wrong timeline and will never get back to the place he's meant to be. That's a fatal line of thought. Barry knows that he has to move forward, he has to learn to live with his mistakes and stop wishing for a world that's gone.

The first step in that journey forward needs to be finding his own place. Barry pulls up an apartment rental website and scans through the listings, clicking on a few that seem promising.

"What are you still doing here?"

Barry spins around. It's Cisco.

"Me? You? What are you doing here? Didn't you leave a couple of hours ago?"

Cisco shrugs. "I started to, but the workroom was kind of a mess and …" His voice trails off. 

"Just didn't feel like going home?"

"Yeah." Cisco sits down next to him, at Caitlin's usual workstation. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for an apartment." Barry keeps scrolling but he's not finding anything that's remotely feasible.

"Why?"

"Figure it's time to get my own place again. Can't keep sponging off of Joe." 

"Joe's walked in on you and Iris one too many times?" Cisco laughs and shakes his head.

"Yeah, something like that."

Cisco peers at the monitor. "What type of place are you looking for?" 

Barry lists his criteria, the most important is that it has to be on the ground level, where his speedy arrivals and departures won't be noticed. "I'd also like a full one-bedroom, not a studio. A decent kitchen and bathroom, maybe a work space." 

Cisco gives him an odd look.

"What's the matter?"

"There might be a place opening up in my building." Cisco's tone is a little tentative.

"Your building?" Barry's always liked Cisco's apartment. It's in a loft conversion from an old factory near the river, not all that far from S.T.A.R. Labs. Cisco had bought into it a few years ago, before the particle accelerator explosion, when working at S.T.A.R. Labs meant big salaries and bigger bonuses. 

"Yeah. The downstairs unit might be going on the market soon. The guy living there has been commuting to Opal City for the past few months and has been whining about keeping two places. He may want to sell if he can get a good offer."

Barry nods. "Buying a condo – that a big step into adulthood."

"It's about time, don't you think?" Cisco kind of smiles.

"Definitely."

Cisco pulls up a street view map of his building and shows Barry how he'd never really attract attention coming and going at speed. There are no other residential properties nearby – just a couple of warehouses. "This would be ideal for you."

Barry takes a deep breath. "Are you sure you'd want me living so close?"

Cisco leans back in his chair and stares up at the ceiling. "I miss us, Barry. I miss my best friend." His voice breaks a little. "I miss my brother and there will never be a day that goes by when I don't regret all the things I can no longer tell him. And every day, I regret all the things I don't tell you – even though I can. All the things you won't tell me – even though you could. I didn't kill Dante. You didn't kill Dante. You didn't get behind the wheel of that car and lose control. I was wrong to ask you to fix it."

Barry joins Cisco in the perusal of the ceiling. "I wake up every morning and think about all of the things I messed up, all of changes I made because I was selfish and grieving and angry. I think that it would be so easy to run back to that night and just make sure that idiot didn't get behind the wheel. Or that Dante was a few feet to the left. Or …" Barry swallows against the knot in his throat. "I want to go back and make it right, but I can't. If I fix that, what else will go wrong? Maybe _you'll_ end up dead instead."

Cisco's voice is broken as he says, "I know. I think about that, too. I wish … " He pauses and shakes his head. "We need to move forward."

"Can we?" Barry puts the tiniest emphasis on that last word.

"We have to. I need my best friend back." Cisco grabs him and pulls him out of his chair, into a tight hug. "I'm so tired of being alone all the time."

Barry hugs him back. "You're not alone. You have Caitlin," Barry reminds him as he lets go. 

"Cait's not you, Bar. She's wonderful and she's helped me through hell, but she's not you."

"I'm not such a good friend, Cisco. In fact, I'm a pretty rotten friend." He thinks about how he'd pushed Cisco into using his powers, how many times he ignored Cisco's pain and asked him to vibe something.

"No, you're not."

Barry shakes his head. "I'm selfish, Cisco. I use you and I never count the cost."

"I could leave at any time, Barry. I don't have to stay here. Tina McGee's offered me any position I want at Mercury. I've been recruited by Rathaway Industries, Palmer Tech, Wayne Tech. I can – even without a Ph.D. – walk into any mechanical engineering firm in the country and get a job. You don't _use_ me. I'm here because I can't imagine being anyplace else. I stay because you're my best friend."

Barry doesn't have an answer to that.

"I've got an idea. A good one." Cisco sounds way too buoyant for all of the emotion that's just passed between them. 

"Oh?"

"My loft has two bedrooms. Maybe you'd like to move in with me? You could give the building – the neighborhood – a dry run?"

Barry feels like he's just been punched in the gut. Or wrapped in the tightest hug of his life. "Really? You want me to move in with you?"

"Yeah." Cisco nods with enthusiasm. "Yeah, I do. It won't be permanent – just for a little while. See how you like loft living."

Barry licks his lips. "Okay, I think I'd like that, too. Just for a little while. And if you need me gone, or I piss you off, or anything – you tell me. I'll be out of your hair. In a flash."

Cisco punches him in the arm. "Very funny."

Barry shoves his hands in his pockets. "Thanks, Cisco. Thank you." _For everything. For giving me another chance, for give us another chance._

__

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow me at my tumblr [Obscene Circus Ponies](http://elrhiarhodan.tumblr.com/), or on my old school (and much beloved) [LiveJournal](http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/) account.


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